Collection: Ashwini Bhat - Featured Artist

Ashwini Bhat, an artist born in southern India, currently lives and works in the Bay Area, California. Coming from a background in literature and classical Indian dance, she now works at the intersection of sculpture, ceramics, installation, and performance. 

Bhat was awarded a McKnight Foundation Residency Fellowship for 2021 and she was  a recipient of Howard Foundation Award for Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited nationally & internationally and can be seen in collections at the Newport Art Museum, USA; Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan; FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum, China; the Watson Institute at Brown University, USA; New Bedford Historical Society, USA; Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia, and in many private collections. Her sculpture also has been widely reviewed and featured in Los Angeles Review of Books (USA), Alta Journal (USA), Brooklyn Rail (USA), Lana Turner: a Journal of Poetry and Opinion (USA), Riot Material (USA), Ceramic Art and Perception (USA/Australia),, Ceramics Ireland (Ireland), New Ceramics (Germany), Caliban (USA), Crafts Arts International (Australia), The Studio Potter (USA), Logbook (Ireland), and Ceramics Monthly (USA). Bhat is the guest curator for the 77th Scripps Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA, 2022. 

Artist Statement:

In my work, I often introduce radical but somehow familiar forms to suggest complex interplay between the landscape, the human, and the non-human. “Trail Notes” are a part of my “Assembling California” series. It’s a documentation of my personal, artistic field survey of California’s ecology in this time of climate change, shifting habitats, and devastating forest fires. I made the “Comfort Objects”, as small hand held prayers. Some are inspired by life-birthing seed-pods or Rudraksha (the prayer beads from India) and are meant to be touched and held. 

Find Ashwini's Artaxis page: https://artaxis.org/artist/ashwini-bhat

Find Ashwini on Instagram: @ashwinibhat

** Ashwini Bhat's Artaxis Shop has ended. You can find more work available for sale by visiting the other Featured Artist collections HERE